``It is abnormal to have so many cases of neglect in just a week and a half,`` said Ewing, whose nonprofit group is headquartered in Barrington.

On Christmas Eve, the society was attempting to save 100 sheep from frostbite and starvation on property in unincorporated Will County, near Joliet. Ewing said that after all the sheep were shorn they were turned out to ``a shell of a corncrib.``

According to Ewing, the property owner was fined last winter for cruelty to animals after some 50 dead cattle were discovered on his land, near 113th Street and Boy Scout Road.

She said the latest incident was reported to the state Department of Agriculture, which instead of impounding the sheep gave the property owner 48 hours to provide adequate food for the animals.

``It`s already two days past the deadline,`` Ewing said Tuesday. ``If nothing is done, the sheep will die.``

In another animal abuse case this month, inspectors for the society found 31 saddle-bred horses starving on a farm near Kankakee. Adequate shelter and feed were not provided for the horses and the farm was in foreclosure proceedings with a bank, Ewing said.

Twenty-seven standardbred horses suffering from malnutrition were found on a farm near Downstate Effingham. Ewing said the farm had fallen into bankruptcy and the owners were not providing adequate feed for the herd.

A total of 18 neglected horses were found at two other locations--one due to the owner`s alcohol problem and the other attributed to the owner`s lack of knowledge of how to care for animals, investigators determined.

Ewing said it may cost the society $10,000 to bring the 76 horses from the four farms back to normal health and to find new homes for them. State law gives the society the same authority to impound abused animals as is given inspectors for the Department of Agriculture, but the society is privately funded.

``We are concerned that we have so many cases of abused animals this winter,`` Ewing said. ``January and February are usually our worst months.``

Illinois` population of 400,000 horses is said to be the second largest in the nation, exceeded only by Texas. Illinois` biggest concentration of horses is in the Barrington area and neighboring McHenry County.

The 50 volunteer investigators for Ewing`s group look into some 2,000 cases of alleged abuse of hooved animals in the state each year, she said, most of those cases in the winter.

``The vast majority of these cases will involve what we call back yard horses,`` Ewing said. ``People move out from the city and into the country and get an acre of land, and the first thing they want to do is get little Johnny a horse.

``While the intentions of the owners may be well-meaning, they may not realize that the horses need more calories in the winter months. They also need fresh water--not frozen water or snow, which will use up more calories just for ingestion.``

Illinois law also requires that a horse be given at least a three-sided shelter.

Ewing said that failure to provide additional calories and shelter during the winter will cause a horse to lose weight and become susceptible to hypothermia.